Smoke pours from the roof at Mai's Restaurant, a 32-year-old restaurant in Midtown.

Smoke pours from the roof at Mai's Restaurant, a 32-year-old restaurant in Midtown.

Photo: Michael Paulsen, Chronicle

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Popular Midtown restaurant Mai's catches fire

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Mai's Restaurant has been a Midtown institution known for drawing late-night dining crowds for more than 30 years.

Now, its future is uncertain after a two-alarm fire Monday gutted the brick building on Milam at Francis.

“It's going to be missed,” frequent customer Terran Mares said as more than 60 Houston firefighters tried to bring the blaze under control.

Restaurant employees were having a celebratory lunch in honor of the Chinese Lunar New Year when the fire broke out at about 10:30 a.m., said Houston Fired Department Assistant Chief Karen DuPont.

Arson investigators determined the fire started in the kitchen while an employee was cooking with a wok. No one was injured.

“They have no reason to believe that it was intentionally set at this time,” she said.

Firefighters arrived to find flames shooting from the large ventilation shafts on the roof of the two-story building. The first fire crews forced their way into the building and began to attack the flames from within. But, HFD officials quickly ordered everyone out and set the stage for a defensive battle.